e color of the clouds rather than the city below. Bookshelves lined two walls, heavy with volumes that looked older than the buildi

gave away a life outside of work, and Elena found herself wondering how much of that absence

on her collarbone, murmuring things to himself she co

what it means," she said. I

of it.

hy

" He set the magnifier down and looked at her properly for the first time since they'd entered the room. "It's a binding mark. It means s

t na

the screen made his expression go still in a way Elena was starting to re

t is

ould see it, one line of text with no name attached. The girl isn't

ur company is warn

aring at the words like he could make them mean something less alarming if he looked long

people wor

own, deliberately, like he wanted it out of both their sight. "I'll find

night is something I

t argue

in this building comp

n flickered, something old and tired passing behind it. "Trust is a currency I've had

ounds l

out self pity, like a fact he'd

of real interest. The spines were unlabeled, or labeled in scripts she didn't know, and she trailed her fingers along them without r

e before she thou

, a painted portrait rendered so precisely it could pass for a photograph if you didn't know better. A man stood at its center, dress

down to the exact line of his jaw, the same steadin

im stood

opped. The woman's

omeone three hundred years dead, wearing a dress she'd never owned and an expression she recogni

idn't sound like her

ena watched something crack open behind his composure. Not anger, not surprise. Grief, worn smooth by centuries of carry

ying to find the right way to have with you sinc

have i

back at Elena's, as though checking, one last time, that they were re

said. "Sit down. This part deserve

from her pocket instead and set it face up on his desk, the unread message still

still. "Where did

"You're supposed to be th